00:00 - The Founding of GPRS Today we welcome Matt Aston. Matt is the founder of GPRS. Although that is an acronym for ground-penetrating radar systems, the company does much more than that these days. Matt started his company in 2001, and now they employ almost 800 people in 54 cities. We discuss the ground-penetrating radar equipment. Matt walks us through some basics about how this equipment uses magnetic variations to help users create a map of the underground infrastructure. When he was starting GPRS, most of his work involved taking readings in concrete–sensing rebar, anchors, etc. As time passed, they shifted toward working with utility contractors before excavations. Matt shares about his dad’s drilling and cutting business in Toledo and how a softball injury forced him to restructure his business. This led to substantial growth that led to a business he might have been interested in taking over. 06:08 - Building a Business on Young Technology, Equipment Overview Matt tells us about an early experience with the stress of the ground-penetrating radar business. On his way to the equipment-training session he was a little scared. On the way home, he was really scared. Eddie asks Matt to talk through ground-penetrating radar tools. He talks through the tools and the process that has enabled his team to reach a 99.87% accuracy record. It involves baby-buggy-like carts and converting screen data to the paint on the ground. A few GPR antennas, a couple for underground and one specifically for concrete. Then there are a few specialized tools, including the handheld wands and sewer cameras. The sewer cameras, along with a few other tools, enable the company to now provide leak-detection services. 15:33 - Training ProgramsMatt shares about his company’s training programs. Matt explains that they now have 3 full-time trainers. These veteran project managers conduct their training in a facility with a custom-built floor full of all kinds of wire, pipes, and conduit. They also have a simulated gas station complete with tanks. Tyler asks Matt to share about his company’s Trump Tower project in Chicago. This involved a demo and then some code upgrades. This required extensive time-consuming retrofits. He recounts a couple other incredibly ambitious projects. We discuss the increasing sensitivity and precision of the equipment involved. Matt shares about a time when he had to break some unfortunate news with the owners of a scientific facility where the concrete hadn’t been poured to the proper thickness.  29:50 - Unusual Projects and Big-City ProjectsTyler asks Matt to share about some of the unorthodox jobs they’ve been called to do. Matt shares a story about a mysterious old site where the client was looking for a large metal container. GPRS has even located a few murder victims. He’s not confirming that one of them was Jimmy Hoffa, but he’s not denying it either. Matt tells a few examples of the interesting variety of locations that this work takes his teams. He gives an example of one crew working in DC who was taken by the National Park Service to scan the lawn at the White House. 37:24 - Entrepreneurship Tyler asks Matt to talk about growing his business. Matt shares about early hires and the challenges of ensuring that the income exceeds the outflow. He discusses decisions that were especially influential, and he shares his thoughts about the role of the companies’ CEOs in both successes and failures. As your company grows, Matt says, your potential also grows.   Matt recounts the stages of growth and the points at which you sense shifts in your perception of the business and your role in it. He set some ambitious goals and has found that they’re achievable. He mentions the role that Toledo’s size played in setting his company on a path for growth.Eddie and Matt compare notes on business-growth rewards and challenges. Matt shares about an unsettling conversation he had with a contractor who wanted to avoid knowing in advance about underground elements because he made more money when his equipment damaged them and then he needed to repair them. They agree that it’s all about “meeting the need.” 59:13 - Matt’s Megaphone MessageWe are capable of so, so much more than we realize. The world around us makes it really easy to be average. If you just show up and do what you said you were going to, you’re already above average. But if you push yourself, you can move into that elite category. Find your why. You can be an elite performer. Find Matt on LinkedInCheck out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening

It’s not worth it. You want to sleep at night.Manipulation sometimes comes in the form of straight-up lying, but it also sometimes comes in half-truths, intimidation. Sometimes it even comes in the form of donuts (although we won’t complain too hard about that one). Be a straight shooter. Not only will it keep you from being found out; it will also make life more pleasant for you. Word of mouth is big in the construction industry. Your reputation will precede you. Be the person who shows up when you say you’re going to show up. Take care of problems.  Check out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!

We start out today by considering placing bets on the Sawzall next door, which of course leads us to reflect on our experience with high school bookies. 02:25 - A Full House of SpecsTyler mentions that his first exposure to the Golden Gate Bridge was in the opening to Full House. Then we dive into some specs: The bridge’s span between towers is 4200 feet.The towers reach 746’ height above the water.Each tower weighs 22,000 tons.The total length of the bridge is 1.7 miles.80,000 miles of steel wire were used to –enough to wrap around the earth 3 times.  1 million rivetsWe discuss the old-school rivets and a condition that developed among riveters. When the primer paint came into contact with the still-hot rivets, they’d release fumes that led to an odd collection of symptoms. Eddie recalls his first trip over the bridge to Muir Woods, where the Ewok scenes in Star Wars were filmed. Tyler thought about taking a similar trip but lacked confidence in the range of his rented electric vehicle.   09:06 - Joseph StraussEddie leads us into a conversation about Joseph Strauss, who headed up the construction of the bridge. Tyler goes bleepy in his review of Strauss’s character. Strauss tended to be a little praise-hungry, tending to brush aside the contributions of others who made substantial contributions to the bridge’s design and construction. We discuss Strauss’s Renaissance-man range of interests and his death soon after the bridge’s completion. Eddie admires Strauss’s idea of creating a scale model of the bridge during the building process.  13:24 - Historical Comparisons, Objections, Divers, etc. We discuss the history of suspension bridges and the unique challenges of constructing a bridge over this particular waterway. Eddie recounts the history of interest in building a bridge that would save massive travel time. A drive around this bay at today’s travel speeds would take 3 hours. He lists the various parties that objected to the bridge’s construction–everything from environmentalists to citizens worried about the naval fleet being prevented from reaching the ocean. (And, of course, you can imagine how worked up the ferrymen were.)Tyler discusses the crucial contributions of the construction divers in those old-school diving suits. We discuss the tasks they completed and the risks they took. 29:00 - Safety Performance, Cables, and AI We express our amazement at the fact that only 11 people died during this project. Considering the safety standards of the day, that was pretty impressive–especially considering the fact that 10 of those deaths occurred in the same incident. That means that if that incident hadn’t occurred, there would have been only a single death in a project completed when some decision-makers considered it acceptable to have one death per million dollars spent on a project. We wonder if part of the reason for that safety was hard hats, which were required for the first time on this project. We review the specs related to the massive cables–up to 3 feet in diameter–that both support the bridge and allow it to flex. These big projects created necessities that mothered inventions. Eddie returns to the topic of naysayers and how we approach the decisions to tackle large projects. We ponder the cost-benefit analyses done with projects like this as they relate to environmental concerns. Tyler connects the learning that occurred and the travel patterns that shifted as a result of the Golden Gate Bridge. He links these considerations to our current perspective on AI. 32:50 - Destination StructuresWe discuss the cool feelings that come with the construction of projects that have enough of a presence in the national consciousness that people travel just to see them. Tyler says the Great Wall of China is one that he’d like to see. Eddie would like to go up in the St. Louis Arch and to see the Space Needle as well as the Taj Mahal. He’d also love to visit some ancient ones.  This prompts us to reflect a bit–thinking that we need to take the time to appreciate the way that people use the things we build. Appreciate the fact that you’re making a difference in people’s daily lives. If you’re interested in learning more about the Golden Gate Bridge and its construction, check out these sources: The RivetsVideo clips of the riveting process 1960s mini-documentary Pics of underwater workersCable picsPics of south tower “bathtub”History Channel Modern Marvels episodeCheck out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening

Eddie’s gears have been ground. It bothers him when people act like they’re the only one with problems–especially when this leads to them unloading their workload onto someone else.This kind of offense is especially frustrating to managers, owners, or other types of bosses who can’t pass the buck.(We can’t imagine how worked up Eddie will be when he’s an old man.)Ultimately, it’s a basic “do unto others as you’d like them to do unto you” situation. It makes you a better employee, a better coworker, a better friend, a better contractor. Tyler reflects on the sense of entitlement that he had as a young fella in the industry, and we discuss the long-term benefits of making deposits to the trust account of those you work with day in and day out.   Check out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!

Tyler’s struggling with sugar withdrawal. Eddie sometimes doesn’t feel like a real man. Hamzah Shanbari likes his coffee bitter and black.02:55 - Welcoming Hamzah ShanbariWe’re glad to have Hamzah back. It’s been a good, long while–almost three years since he joined us to discuss marketing vs. reality. He’s still achieving more than us. Hamzah now works with Haskell, where he is the Director of Innovation. Haskell has charged Hamzah and his team to invest, invent, and innovate. They do this under an LLC named Dysruptek, that seeks to look with a fresh eye at things that have long been done the same way. Hamzah talks about Haskell’s Big Pitch, the Shark Tank-style event where people within the company present their new ideas. Tyler asks how they vet the ideas. Hamzah talks about Miro digital mapping and a few other steps. He enters these ideas into a database that can be consulted as company needs arise over time. When an opportunity arises, they pull up these ideas and fund pilot programs. 15:12 - Some SpecificsEddie asks for some specific examples of projects Hamzah’s team has guided through this pilot process. He shares an example of a software package. Project managers upload the specifications of their projects and then the software tracks down and compiles all of the documentation required and ensures that all parties have what they need for their respective scope of responsibility. Then reminders can be programmed that will ensure continued documentation is properly collected and organized and distributed.  Tyler asks how commonly AI has arisen within these conversations, and we spend some time discussing Sora generative AI. We discuss the changes we’re likely to see in this area within the coming months and years. Eddie wonders if it will discourage our imagination. Hamzah shares about the book The Coming Wave, which recounts the process of training AI to play the game Go.   25:22 - AI IntegrationHamzah takes us into a conversation about the ways that AI is increasingly integrated into software such as Revit. We ponder the fact that big companies move slowly, meaning the shift towards intuitive operation doesn’t happen quickly. Hamzah shares some examples of contracts being examined and on some level executed by AI. He also mentions Togel AI conducting safety analysis for jobsites. Eddie shares some thoughts about the reasonable reach of automation. Hamzah’s thought: Verify. Eddie agrees: Check the numbers. Hamzah refers to the importance of highly qualified inspectors–for example stainless steel welding inspectors. He shares about a machine-learning experience they had with training AI to flag questionable welds. One of the lessons? AI is not that easy. Using it with high-value work requires a lot of time, money, and effort. Tyler asks Hamzah to share about cool new tools he’s seen. He mentions Skydio drones that are much more extensively automated in its execution of photogrammetry tasks. 40:36 - The BookTyler invites Hamzah to share about a big development in his life: He’s writing a book. Hamzah explains that he approached this project as an effort to share the knowledge he’s gained during his many years engaging with innovative ideas in construction. The book is titled Paperless Builders: The Why, What, and How of Construction Technology, and it’s designed for people working in contexts where they don’t have someone to facilitate innovation. Tyler talks about his interest in this subject matter and the mission of sharing information that will serve as a tide to raise all boats.Hamzah is working on building a community of people who can provide perspectives that will help shape his book. If you’re interested in learning more about the book, check out this page.  47:24 - Megaphone MessageThink outside the box. Do some research. There are tons of solutions that will make you more efficient, safer, more accurate. Find Hamzah on LinkedIn and at Haskell Check out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening

Today's leadership lesson was inspired by what we've recently learned about Joseph Strauss, the somewhat-designer of the Golden Gate Bridge. (You’ll hear more about him in an upcoming full CBP episode.)When you’re in charge of a crew, there’s a natural tendency to want to look good. This is natural, but it’s also dangerous. The good team leader knows that he looks good because of the members of the team. If you’re claiming credit for the final project, you’re blowing the opportunity to give credit where credit is due.Your tendency to claim credit for success should be directly related to your tendency to take the blame when things go wrong. As Eddie says, the call is to accurately represent your contributions. There’s no reason for false humility, but there’s always reason for genuine, circumstantially appropriate humility. People work ambitiously for people who lead this way. Check out the partners that make our show possible. Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!

A few weeks ago, Jennifer Wilkerson joined us to discuss training, education, and recruitment. Today we’ve invited her back to talk about women in construction. Jennifer Vice President of Innovation and Advancement at the National Center for Construction Education and Research. 00:00 - All in the FamilyTyler asks Jennifer to give a run-down of the welding business that she and her husband own. Jennifer was the business manager for several years after leaving her job as a high school English teacher. Over the years, their two daughters, aged 21 and 31, have taken different meandering routes into that business or the broader construction industry. This means that Jennifer speaks from a position of rich experience when it comes to women in construction. Eddie asks how the job search went for her younger daughter, who shifted to construction from a forensic-science program. Jennifer said that construction companies were quite eager to welcome a young prospect interested in becoming a superintendent. 06:09 - The ObstaclesEddie asks Jennifer to discuss the obstacles that keep women from entering the construction industry. She recounts a survey of elementary-age girls that revealed the primary concern most of them had: “I’m not strong enough.” They simply don’t realize that the construction industry is not all about lifting stuff. Tyler shares about how much he enjoys taking his daughter to Home Depot or to visit a work site. Eddie follows up with some memories about the bros’ grandma, who had a toolbox of her own. Tyler asks about the pressure to recruit women at this moment in the industry. Jennifer says that it’s a matter of need. The industry needs to tap into all sectors of the workforce if it wants to resolve the labor shortage. 10:42 - Research ResultsJennifer shares about research that NCCER conducted regarding women in construction. They surveyed 176 tradeswomen to see what changes might make the industry more welcoming. They also studied other surveys that have been on this topic.Here are some of the findings:Women do things more thoughtfully and meticulously in situations where men might to revert to brute strength.Women bring a sense of teamwork and emotional cohesion to a team. Men who worked on teams with women rated themselves higher on productivity then men on teams without women. Jennifer attributes this to the fact that many women are encouragers.Women bring a diversity of perspectives to a crew and a worksite.We talk about that many women got into construction for the money and then found themselves taking great pride and satisfaction in seeing completed projects. 18:10 - Concerns of Prospective Workers Eddie asks Jennifer to share about the concerns that women have coming into the industry. She mentions concerns about sexual harassment but expresses that the industry has come a long way in this area. She gives an example of a company that invested genuine resources and thought toward ensuring that concerns were recognized and addressed. Another concern is accommodation for mothers. She says it’s important to consider some creativity in shift work to enable women to address concerns of childcare. She suggests some other creative solutions, such as designated parking for parents. Many of these family-friendly considerations would be beneficial for everyone.We step into the topic of porta-potties and the fact that most of them are designed with no consideration to feminine hygiene products. The companies say they’ve never been asked for these simple features.Eddie asks about the best ways to ensure that women’s perspectives are making it into planning conversations. Jennifer explains how much of a difference that makes. She encourages women to speak up to the leaders of their organizations. They want to hear. 28:34 - Safety and Team ChemistryEddie shares his speculation that women are more risk-averse than most men. Jennifer confirms that this is the case. She shares about a woman who plays “Mama bear” as a safety enforcement specialist. Eddie refers to the cowboy mindset that many men take until there’s an accident. Tyler and Eddie share about an experience with a woman who became an integral member of their detailing team. Eddie refers to the clarity she brought to communication and the attention to detail that she brought to the detailing process. 36:29 - Megaphone MessageHere’s what Jennifer says with her megaphone this time around: Give women a chance. Be a company that women want to join. Think about your project sites. Ask the women on your team what you can do to be more welcoming to women. Think about your daughter, your wife, your sister. Find Jennifer on LinkedInCheck out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening

It’s hot when you weld.Today we’re back around to the topic of young people coming into the industry. Today, we’re specifically discussing ways to help young people with an interest in the construction industry. This conversation brings to mind times when we’ve learned from newbies who are approaching industry-standard software for the first time. We encourage educators and people within the industry to encourage young prospects to explore. Help them wade into the waters of Bluebeam and other software that are at the heart of design and construction today. Here are some links to get you started: Bluebeam’s academic program: www.bluebeam.com/academic Bluebeam University: www.bluebeam.com/bluebeam-universityCheck out the partners that make our show possible. Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!

If you're interested in learning more about the construction of Hoover Dam, scroll to the end of the show notes for links.00:00 - A Quick Dam Joke, the Consortium, and Some StatsWe question our ability to keep our puns in check. Sorry, Mom.Then we move on to the contractors. We discuss the consortium called Six Companies Inc. that won the bid at nearly $49 million, approximately $860 million in today’s dollars.Eddie makes a conveniently timed comparison to the Washington Monument. The Hoover Dam is 726 feet tall–almost 200 feet taller than the Washington Monument. Only 6 buildings in the US were taller than the dam when it was built.We discuss some stats:-4.4 million cubic yards of concrete were used in the project. That is enough to pave a two-lane road from Seattle to Miami or a four-foot-wide sidewalk around the Earth at the Equator or enough to pave a two-lane road from Seattle to Miami.-Its base is as thick as the length of 2 football end-to-end-It has 4 intake towers (30’ diameter each) that can carry enough water to fill 900 bathtubs in only one second. That means 1,448,100 “bathtubfuls” of water will have passed through the dam in the time it takes you to listen to this episode. 07:15 - Construction Costs and Power OutputTyler mentions that the cost of the initial construction, which finished in 1936, wasn't paid off until 1987. Eddie discusses the way that we handle financing for capital projects, spending not just tomorrow’s money–but money that won’t come in for decades. We compare these expenses to the absolutely monumental amount of economic impact that the electricity from the dam has had. Here’s where the 4 billion kilowatt-hours each year goes:19% to Arizona23% to Nevada58% percent goes to California (15% to LA, which is 270 miles away)10:46 - Hoovervilles and FatalitiesEddie fills the gaps in Tyler’s history education with an explanation of the Hoovervilles from the Great Depression. Hoover didn’t get much positive PR aside from this dam. We discuss the desperation of the Great Depression is shown by the fact that the ability to line up workers for a job to do this. Tyler shares the troubling coincidence is the fact that the first and last men to die on this project were father and son. Thinking about these human costs leads us into a discussion about the structure of incentives and penalties that drove the owners of Six Companies to push the pace of construction. 19:53 - Takeaways: Big Projects, Green Energy, Old-school DraftingWe discuss the fact that bold projects lead to emboldened people who move on to even bolder projects. Sometimes biting off more than you can chew leads to growth. Tyler makes the point that this dam was a green-energy project long before the term “green energy” was coined. He also expresses awe at the thought that all of the drafting for this massive project would have been done by hand. Eddie stops short of calling himself a history buff, but he expresses a deep respect for the teams of designers and workers who accomplished massive projects like this with so little help from what we consider advanced technologies. Tyler invites you to submit your ideas for future research-based projects. If you’re interested in additional details about the Hoover Dam, explore these sources: EIA.govUSBR.govB1M video: compares the world’s largest dams to other structuresLake Mead historical water-level chartNPS.govBechtel’s page about construction of the damOld publicity/education videoLibrary of Congress Photos Video of the physics and engineering involvedCheck out the partners that make our show possible.Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening

Today we bring you the last of our February series on things we love about the construction industry. Today, we're talking about variety.When it’s Friday and you just wanna go home. What keeps you there?Eddie and Tyler point out that you could be in a dull, repetitive cubicle job that is going to be taken over by AI. But instead, you’re in a field where you encounter something new every day. There are tampers to ride, new guys to send out for the beam stretcher, all kinds of fresh and exciting variety. And, yes, there are new regulations, new owners, new contractors to work with. Is all that variety wonderful? Probably not. Still, it’s not dull. So hang in there at least until lunch.Check out the partners that make our show possible. Find Us Online: BrosPodcast.com - LinkedIn - Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - TikTok - Eddie's LinkedIn - Tyler's LinkedInIf you enjoy the podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us! Thanks for listening!